Adding and configurring the DHCP Server Role on Windows Server 2012R2

The DHCP Server role is probably the most important part of the network infrastructure. It is the reason you are able to quickly get to resources on your local area network, and the internet. Besides assigning each computer, or mobile device a unique number called an IP address, it tells each of those devices where to go to find other servers, or services necessary for a network to function. To acomplish this you must program the DHCP server service with IP address for every host on the network, as well as information about the DNS server for name resolution, and gateway device, that lets devices get out to the internet. To install and configure DHCP follow these steps:

Log on to your server as administrator
Allow the Server Manager to load
From the Server Manager click Add roles and features
If prompted with the Before your begin screen click next.
On the Select Installation type ensure Role-based or feature-based installation is selected, and click next
On the Select destination server, click the server that you want to install DHCP on the click next. In our example there is only one server which is highlighted (DC1.contoso.com)
From the Select server roles page check the box for DHCP server. Click the Add features button to continue, then click next to go on to the next page.
On the Select features page click Next to continue
On the DHCP Server page click Next to continue
On the Confirm installation selections page click Install to continue
The Installation page display the installation progress. Once the Installation progress page reports: Configuration required. Installation succeeded on your computer, click close
On the Server Manager click the notification flag with yellow triangle.
From the resulting menu select Complete DHCP configuration
On the resulting Description page click Next to continue
On the Authorization page, Use the following credentials should be selected with an administrative account. In our example we started the procedure with CONTOSOAdministrator. Click commit to continue, then click close
Now go to the Server Manager and from the tools menu select DHCP
On the DHCP console all nodes until you see the contents of the IPV4 node
Right mouse click on the IPv4 node and select New Scope from the context menu.
Click Next on the Welcome screen to continue
On the scope name type Scope 1, although this could have any name, like subnet1, subnet2, or subnet3. Scope one will do for this example. Click Next to continue
On the IP address range type the starting IP address of the range IP addresses you intend to assign, for this example we’ll use 192.168.0.1, then type the last IP address you intend to assign. In this example we’ll use the last assignable address in this class of IP: 192.168.0.254. Click Next to continue
On the exclusion range we’ll enter the IP address: 192.168.0.200 and click Add . This prevents the DHCP server from assigning this IP address to another host, thus avoiding an IP address conflict. You could at this point add additional host IP addresses that have already been configured on other hosts such as printers or routers. For this example we’ll assume this is the only host of the range that has been assigned. Click Next to continue
On the lease duration you can configure how many days, hours, or minutes an IP address is good for. The default value is good for this example. Click Next continue
On the Configure DHCP Options, click Yes, I want to configure these options now, then click Next to continue
On the Router(Default Gateway) page we’ll use this computers IP address, on the assumption that this computer will be the gateway for other computers to get to the Internet. In reality, the IP address pertains to a device such as Cisco router that sits between you LAN, and the Internet. Click Next to continue
On the Domain Name and DNS Search page, values should be pre-populated as this machine has already been configured as a Domain Controller, and as such would know these values. Accept them and click Next to continue.
On the WINS server page click Next to continue.
On the Activate Scope page, click Yes, and click Next to continue
On the Completing the New Scope Wizard page, click Finish to finish the DHCP configuration process.
Your DHCP server is now configured and serving IP addresses.